Developers team solar with batteries, wind to vanquish ​“duck curve”

SOLAR: Analysts say most solar projects awaiting connection to the Western grid are hybrid installations paired with battery storage or wind facilities as California’s solar ​“duck curve” grows more pronounced. (Utility Dive)

ALSO:

• California’s clean energy industry, unions and consumer advocates work together to reform the state’s community solar program to equitably expand renewable energy access. (Solar Power World)
• A northern California county votes to delay its decision on a proposed 25 MW floating solar facility on a sanitation district’s ponds after some residents and labor groups oppose it. (Press Democrat)
• An Arizona county’s leaders worry development facilitated by the federal Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Western solar plan could disrupt other public land uses such as grazing and recreation. (Today’s News-Herald, subscription)
• A small California city breaks ground on a 1 MW solar installation to power a wastewater treatment plant. (news release)

CLEAN ENERGY: A New Mexico nonprofit launches a climate investment bank designed to finance clean energy projects benefiting low-income, disadvantaged and tribal communities. (Albuquerque Journal)

OIL & GAS: 

• Colorado residents push back against a proposal to drill up to 166 oil and gas wells in the Denver area, saying they would be too close to homes and could harm drinking water supplies. (Sentinel)
• ConocoPhillips Alaska argues before a U.S. appeals court for the right to keep exploratory oil and gas well data secret from state officials. (Bloomberg Law, subscription)

COAL:

• Navajo Nation advocates welcome the U.S. EPA’s new rules requiring power plants to clean up coal ash and other solid combustion waste, saying they will help heal historic wounds inflicted by the industry. (Atmos)
• Wyoming lawmakers consider following Utah’s model of declaring energy independence and acquiring coal and natural gas plants in an effort to keep them operating in defiance of Biden administration rules. (Cowboy State Daily)

UTILITIES:

• An Oregon citizens’ board calls for a utility rate-hike cap, saying that some customers’ power bills are 50% higher than they were five years ago. (OPB)
• New Mexico utilities say they will prioritize transfer capability and transmission rights when deciding which of two competing Western day-ahead markets to join. (RTO Insider, subscription)

CRITICAL MATERIALS: Utah researchers find elevated recoverable concentrations of rare earth elements in active coal mines in Colorado and Utah. (news release)

GRID: California’s grid operator proposes raising the soft limit on power providers’ energy bids to better account for costs. (RTO Insider, subscription)

HYDROPOWER: Northwest tribal nations and federal agencies move forward on a plan aimed at restoring salmon runs decimated by hydropower dams on the Columbia River and its tributaries. (Idaho Capital Sun)